I ruined my twin sister's life

My whole life I have been jealous of my identical twin sister. Ever since we were little she has been better than me, smarter and more popular. At high school she got red house captain while I got vice. In our VCE results she got the perfect score that she was hoping for while I got a not-so-good score and could not go for the job I had wanted.

As we became older things still didn’t change. She had a perfect husband, a great job, and three beautiful children, and they were quite wealthy. I had three unsuccessful marriages and a child from each liaison. I had lost job after job while Jen had her dream career. I ended up a single mum with no job and three kids to look after. I struggled financially while her family travelled all over the world. Her life was exactly like she had planned it and she was blissfully happy. I became so fed up and jealous of her that I decided to get revenge.

One night at a family reunion for Christmas there were a lot of upsets and arguments amongst the children. Her youngest daughter Maggie was upset so I took her into another room to comfort her and to try and find out what the problem was. I sorted out the situation and sent her back to join the other children. My twin sister’s husband Jack came up behind me, thinking I was Jen. He started kissing me all over the neck and seducing me and whispering things in my ear. I didn’t mention once that it was me, Sal and not Jen — I just played along. My sister came into the room unexpectedly, I suddenly slapped her husband and shouted at him to stop it and that he was a womaniser. I told my sister that he had been harassing me for years, forcing himself on me. I was constantly plagued by his unwanted attention. I had never told her this before because I loved her and never wanted to upset her.

The whole time this was happening Jack just kept denying it and saying it wasn’t true — that he had mistaken me for Jen. Jen was absolutely dumbfounded; she did not know who to believe. The husband she had always loved and trusted or her sister who had always been true and honest? I could see the confusion written all over her face. Jack said he had had a bit to drink and thus it was a case of mistaken identity and that Jen must believe him.

Jen started to doubt Jack’s faithfulness and over the next few months they had many fights and disagreements so they ended it. Now my sister suffers severe depression and has consequently had to quit her job. Jen is now in the same position as me; struggling financially and lonely. My nieces and nephews are miserable in this new situation and miss their dad terribly. Poor Jack has lost all contact with his wife and children. He came around to my house to try and get me to tell the truth. I feel so guilty every time I see her but I can’t bring myself to admit what I have done. And every time I see her I feel so sad because I know that it was me who made her like this.